Evil in Our Blood
by starlight1395
Summary: The baddest of the bad were exiled to the Island. Or rather, the baddest that they allowed to live. Jay was the first to realize that maybe evil wasn't all it was cracked up to be, but he didn't come to that conclusion alone. Everyone has their sectrets, some more dangerous than others. Warnings inside.


**I tried making this an oneshot, but it was just too much to fit on one story.**

 **Warnings: Suicidal thoughts/actions, self-harm.**

 **I watched this movie at least five times, and while watching I started to wonder about all the other villains in fairy tales, and what their children would be like.**

* * *

 **Jay's POV**

I felt weird about the whole love potion thing. It didn't feel…right. Last time I had this feeling, Father was particularly harsh with his punishment. Not that I blamed him. I had failed bringing him back something worth selling, so I deserved his replications.

"Are we sure about this?" I was leaning up against Mal's locker, watching her fiddle with the baggie with the cookie in it. She gave me a dumbfounded look and whispered angrily at me.

"What are you talking about? Of course we're sure! You're evil! You're bad news! Snap out of it!" I could see in her eyes she didn't 100% believe it, but I wasn't about to argue. I knew, as did all of us from the Island, that if we didn't pull this off, we wouldn't be allowed to apologize.

"Haha yeah, you're right. Thanks. I needed that." I smiled at her, watching the stress melt a little from her face. Hearing voices, we bother turned to see the target of our plan not ten feet away from us. I watched Mal place her mask of innocence on her face as I pushed myself off the lockers. Stalking over to the railing, I began talking to the girls gathered below.

Since Mal started becoming popular with them because of the whole hair thing, they've been more open to the rest of us. I reached over the edge and grasped into one of their wrists. I shot a flirtatious smile down to them and watched them swoon.

"Look out for number 8. I'll be scoring the winning goal." I caught varieties of 'I'll be there.' And 'I'll be rooting for you Jay!' as I glanced out the corner of my eye. Over to the left was Mal and Ben, his eyes starting to glaze over due to the love potion.

I tried to ignore the unsteady feeling in the pit of my stomach and turned away from them, not watching where I was going. Walking straight, I was planning on going down to the field to get some of this stress out, when I walked straight into something warm and solid.

"Ouch!" I looked down at the girl at my feel, rubbing her tailbone and wincing. Her books were scattered around, papers fluttering slightly in the breeze. One of her arms was covered by a white sleeve-glove, but her other was bare, shown off by a white halter top and white skirt. Her brown hair was pulled back by a white ribbon, and her white shoes were now scuffed something fierce. I reached one hand out to her. She looked up, startled. She jumped up, ignoring my hand and brushing off the obvious dirt on her skirt. She silently began picking up her books.

"Hey. I'm Jay." The silence was becoming a little uncomfortable, so I introduced myself as I stooped over to help pick up the papers.

"Renee." It was almost a whisper, but I still caught it. I held the few papers I managed to get before her out, and she took them with a smile.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Renee." I gave her my favorite wolfish grin. Usually girls don't pay any mind to it, but her face turned slightly pink.

"Same to you." She went to turn away, but as if something pulled her back towards me, she went to face me again. "Um, would you like to walk with me to lunch?" She was still soft spoke, but I could feel an undercurrent of power behind her notes.

"I would be honored to." I took her arm in mine, as if I was actually a gentleman, and began to walk to the dining hall. "So Renee, who is your fairy tale parent?" I was just trying to spark some conversation, but she wasn't too thrilled with my choice of questions.

"No one you would know." We walked silently for a few minutes, my head going in circles trying to figure out which smaller fairy tale it could be.

"Jay, tell me about the Island." No one had spoken for almost ten minutes, while we got our lunches and found a shady spot under a tree. Her sudden request made me look up from my sandwich, mid bite. I chewed quickly and swallowed loudly. I pulled the drink I had swiped from my pocket and took a long sip, offering it to Renee. She only raised an eyebrow and accepted the offering.

"Well, it's not a pretty place. Nothing like here. Everything looks sort of patched together and everyone is dirty. There's not much electricity, only a few of the public places and our house got anything. Most of the people there try to be as honest as they can, just so they can make a living. The only reason Mal, Carlos, Evie and me have it so good is cuz our parents are the baddest of the bad." I saw her flinch a little from the corner of my eye, and I turned to her. My eyebrows were furrowed with concern, something I only have for the other three.

"The baddest of those left." She whispered, staring at the grass with such intensity I was afraid it would burst into flames.

"Those who are left…?" I trailed off, hoping she would fill in the blanks, but she merely shook her head.

"Never mind me. Keep telling me about your home." I blinked slowly, confused at her interest of the island, but I continued anyway.

"My father rose me to be a top notch thief. I can swipe just about anything from anyone, but if I didn't please him with my haul he would be quite displeased with me. Thankfully, Father was one of the more lenient ones. Poor Mal has the worst end of the stick." My voice dropped down low, afraid of angering some other worldly powers by talking poorly about Mal's mother.

"I can imagine." Renee didn't sound sad. She sounded like she was a thousand miles away, mind wise at least.

"What about your home life? Must have been a thousand times better than mine huh? Living in this world instead of the slums." Her jaw clenched and I could see her trying to decide what to tell me.

"I lived in the court of the White Queen as her heir. I lived with her until I was sixteen before coming here." It was obvious she was done talking, but I knew she was hiding something. Something big. But I decided to find that out later.

"Well Renee, it was lovely to meet you, but I'm afraid I have a team meeting in my dorm room. You know us villains, always plotting with each other." I stood and brushed the grass off my jeans before offering her a hand up. This time she accepted, and I hauled her to her feet. No wonder I knocked her over so easily. She was next to weightless.

"And it was a pleasure meeting you, Jay. Despite the rumors about you, I had a good time." Her smile was small, but genuine. I ignored the part about the rumors, because I already knew about those. Hell, Carlos started half of them himself. As she gathered the trash and began walking away, I called after her.

"Hey!" She stopped and turned her head. "You maybe wanna hang out again later?" She smiled and called back to me.

"Sure. I usually study until three. Meet me back here then." Before I could say an anything, she was gone. I ripped off my red beanie and rubbed my head, trying to figure out what just happened here. Shoving my hat in my back pocket and my hands in my front, I started the trek to the dorm I share with Carlos.

The walk took about fifteen minutes, and even then I was the last one there. Mal was laying on my bed, her feet kicking my pillow, reading that spell book of hers. Carlos was still playing his game, and had advanced several levels since the failed museum break it. Evie was at the desk, sketching something, probably some new fashion design. All their heads turned to me when the door when I walked in.

"You're late." I rolled my eyes.

"Yes Mal, I realized that. But you didn't start yet so I didn't miss anything." She just glared at me and rolled onto her back.

"So the love potion plan seems to have gone off without a hitch. I actually have a date tomorrow…" She tried to hide her blush, but we all saw it. As Evie began to gush over what Mal was going to wear and how she should do her hair, Carlos walked over to me and slung an arm around my shoulders, or tried too at least.

"Something bothering you man?" He was always able to see through me.

"Have you ever heard of the White Queen?" He thought for a second before shaking his head and walking over to the laptop I had stolen the first day. After a few seconds of typing and clicking, he waved me over.

"So there are several version of Alice in Wonderland, but those people tend to stay to themselves so no one really knows which version is the real one. The White Queen refers to the good ruler of Wonderland. Her sister, the Red Queen – or Queen of Hearts – is always portrayed as the villain. She was the worst of the worst, beheading anyone who displeased her, from her enemy's to the worker who ate her tarts. When the land was untied and the villains were banished to the Island, the Queen of Hearts was declared to dangerous and was…" He looked away from the screen and right into my eyes. "Executed."

Conversation stopped and the silence was suffocating.

"E-executed?" Evie sounded small, scared, like she did the time some boys pushed her into a mud puddle and she had to explain to her mother what had happened.

"I guess our parents weren't the baddest of the bad after all." Carlos' voice was hushed in awe. He clicked a few more things and was sucked into reading something.

"Mal? Is it an option to just…stay here?" I was staring at the grain in the table, almost afraid to make eye contact with anyone. All eyes turned to me, and a light gasp was heard.

"Jay… you can't be serious. Of course it's not an option. If we don't steal this wand, our parents are going to do worse than kill us."

"Not if we don't go back."

"Jay, you're talking crazy. We can't stay here. We don't belong here." Mal had closed her book and sat up, looking at me like I had grown two heads.

"That's our problem, _Mal."_ I spit her name back in her. "We don't belong anywhere." I spun on my heels and walked out of the room. Even though it was still the afternoon, the wind had begun to kick up and it was getting chilly. The sun set earlier here then back home. On the Island, the sun would be out until eight, nine o'clock at night. Here it's dusk by six.

Shoving my hat back on my head, I stomped out to the commons, glaring at anyone who made eye contact with me. I refused to let anyone notice the extra gleam in my eyes. The added moisture. Because I sure as hell wasn't allowing a rumor that I was a cry baby around school.

But I wasn't wrong. We didn't belong on the Island. We don't belong in this prissy school of princes and princesses. We truly are a band of misfits.

I found myself walking towards the tree I ate lunch under. Realizing I still had an hour and a half before Renee was planning on coming back. Huffing, I threw myself down at the base of the tree, wiping away some annoying moisture off my cheek. I brought my knees up to my chest and rested my head on top.

Looking to the grass, I saw a batch of little white flowers growing next to me. Suddenly, I was reminded of something I had forgotten a long time ago.

* * *

 _I was sitting in one of the last few patches of grass on the Island. A woman knelt a few feet away from me, her headdress the same orange as the sunset behind her. She held two little white flowers in her long, slender fingers, twisting them together to for a chain. I laughed as my own chain fell to pieces, and the woman laughed along with me, her laugh so rich and loving. She placed the ring of flowers on my head and held her arms out to me._

 _"I love you mommy."_

* * *

I shook my head violently and blinked fast. I had forgotten about my mother. Jafar decided he had no use for her after I was able to eat solid foods, but in those first few years he would allow her to visit. Soon after I turned five, she stopped coming and he began training me as a thief.

I found my fingers picking the delicate little blossoms, twisting the stems and knotting them securely. Losing myself in the wonderful monotony of the action, I didn't hear footsteps approaching until I heard a light cough. Looking up, I didn't realize how sore my eyes were. Renee was standing there, dressed in all white again. She was looking at me with a mix of confusion and amusement. I quickly tied the last stem together to make a loop and stood.

I placed the flower crown on her head, but I had made it way too long, so it slipped right down to her shoulders. She laughed, and it wasn't the light giggle she gave me earlier. It was an actual, genuine laugh.

"Will you walk with me?" She smiled warmly at me and gestured with her head towards the hedge maze. As we walked, she took the flower chain off and began to undo it. I was taken back, and was about to say something that probably wasn't going to be very nice, she reached up to my head and placed a smaller ring if flowers on top of my hat. She retied the other end and placed the second ring on her head.

"I might have made it a little big…" I laughed and rubbed the back of my head. She smiled and shook her head.

"Come on. There's something I want to show you." She took off ahead of me and walked into the maze, cutting to the right and leaving my train of sight. I grinned at the challenge and ran after her. I took that first right, and was immediately lost. Renee was nowhere to be seen, and all sounds from the outside world were suddenly muffled. It was like being in a different world.

I came to a T-intersection, and trusted my gut, running to the left. I took a few more turns and became increasingly turned around. I wasn't scared. At all. I wasn't afraid of being lost, wasn't afraid of losing Renee. Not at all…

"RENEE!" The scream tore its way out of my throat without me really thinking about what I was actually doing. I spun around when I heard a light laughing behind me. Spinning around, I saw a head of brunette hair peeking out from behind the hedge about ten feet away.

"You were doing so well. I was wondering if you would actually make it to the center without my help. Only one wrong turn." Her white skirt was painted with green, and her one glove was no longer as pristine.

"You got a little something on your skirt…" I trailed off as I gestured to her outfit. Glancing down, she saw the damage done and laughed.

"I've never been a huge fan of white anyway. Come on." She disappeared behind the hedge again, and this time I was sure I wasn't going to lose her. I ran after her and grabbed her left wrist, the one covered with the glove. She gave a shocked scream and tried to rip her arm away like a reflex action. I raised an eyebrow at her and she blushed.

"Sorry. You scared me. That's all." She turned her face away from me, and I realized something. She looked up at me shocked as I took off the flower crown and pulled my red beanie over her head.

"Red is a much better color on you. White is so… boring." Her face went from a soft pink to a deathly white.

"I-I've never really been a fan of red. It represents death and pain and blood and suffering." She was spitting those words out, disgusted at the connotations she believed red represented.

"Also passion and romance and love." I didn't want to admit my voice was a little weak, but she was so damn adamant about her hatred for a simple color. Despite her outburst, she didn't take off the hat. She just shook her head slightly and sighed.

"Come on Jay. We're almost there." She wraps her arms around herself, trying to keep in her body heat with the coolness that was settling with the setting sun. I follow behind her for a minute of silence before entering a clearing. It must have been the center of the maze. The hedges surrounding the clearing had flowers covering the green leaves. Half where white, but the other half was red. The middle of the clearing had a giant statue of two woman, one short and elegant, made of white marble, the other tall and fearsome, carved from pink stone.

Both woman had their hands out, the white statue's hands out as if giving a child a treat, the pink statue's hands out as if commanding someone to their knees. They were standing back to back, with a small pool at their feet.

I watched as Renee walked over to the statues, eyes glassy.

"These statues where put here after the villain purge. Not many people make it to the center because the maze is so difficult." She stared at the statues with hatred in her eyes. I walk up behind her and place my hands on her shoulders.

She spun around and buried her face in my chest. I was beyond startled, seeing how back home I rarely had any contact that didn't end in bruises. I wrapped my arms around her as she began trembling.

"I hate coming here, but I keep coming anyway." Her voice was muffled and shaky.

"Why do you hate it?"

"It's a reminder of why I shouldn't be alive." I pushed her away, staring at her with absolute shock. She was staring at the ground, no tears yet.

"Renee, what do you mean?" I gave a humorless laugh, afraid. She looked up at me, eyes dead and drying.

"It's getting late. We should head back." She grabbed my wrist and pulled me after her. "Stay close or you won't make your way out for hours." We took one right turn and she released my hand. She pulled aside some of the branches to reveal a door behind the leaves.

She opened it and went through, only pausing to glance back at me. The tunnel was dark, but not pitch black. We walked in silence while I tried to think of something to say.

"I've never shown anyone this before, you know." She didn't look back to me and if her voice didn't bounce off the walls I would've thought I imagined it.

"Why me then?"

"No one else would have understood, even slightly. Everyone in this god forsaken school lived happy lives with their happy parents. They wouldn't get it. But you do, don't you?" she stopped walking and wrapped her arms tighter around herself.

"Yeah…. I think I do." I whispered, my throat tight. She bobbed her head and kept walking. We came out another hidden door at the start of the maze. I looked around, trying to figure out how we got turned around if we walked in a straight line.

"Maybe we can do this again." She turned and smiled at me. Even though it was dark, I saw the tear tracks in the moon light.

"Where's your dorm? I'll walk you there." She looked around and shrugged.

"It's a ways away. Don't worry about me." I grinned at her, trying to put her at ease.

"Alright Renee. I'll see you for lunch tomorrow." It wasn't a question, and she heard the statement.

"Yeah, that sounds great." She turned and walked in the opposite direction of the dorms, but I just shrugged and went back to my room.

It only took about ten minutes for me to walk there, but it was already as dark as it was going to get. I pushed the door open and glanced around the room, noting Carlos' sleeping shape in the other bed. Dude lifted his head and ruffed quietly in a greeting.

I walked over and gave him a short pat on the head before sitting on the edge of my bed. As I was unlacing my shoes, the other bed creaked.

"I was worried about you. His voice was slurred with sleep.

"Sorry for storming out like that."

"Don't apologize. You're right, about us not fitting in." I saw his figure sit up, cloaked in the shadows of the dark room.

"But there's nothing we can do about it." I whispered down to my hands.

"That can't be true…" I looked up at him. The moonlight was barely coming in the window, illuminating his freckles. "I mean, we can't not fit in forever. We have to find our place eventually, right?"

"Yeah… eventually." I didn't have the heart to tell him what I actually thought. I could see his smile in the faint light.

"Yeah. We'll all find our place." He laid back down, holding Dude close to him. I collapsed on my bed, throwing my arm over my eyes but not closing my eyes. I heard Carlos' breathing even out and I exhaled loudly. Too much happened in one day for me to be able to sleep, and when I finally did drift off, it wasn't pleasant.

* * *

 _The Island was dark as death at night. The little electricity we got was extinguished with the sun, and the moon did little to light the streets. But up on the rooftops, the moon was plenty bright enough. I was alone, standing on the ledge of the roof._

 _My face throbbed in time with my heart beat, and my wrist was motionless in its makeshift wrappings. Father wasn't very happy about the haul I brought in today. It was the third day in a row I wasn't able to steal anything worthwhile for his store._

 _He was furious, and the other Villains didn't step in. Thankfully Mal and the others weren't there. Thankfully Father wasn't in one of his rages too. His last rage almost killed me._

 _I looked over the edge at the quite streets, thinking this over a final time. I couldn't do this anymore. I couldn't stand this life for one more day. Just as I was about to take the step off, I heard a voice behind me. Spinning around, I came face to face with a girl._

 _I didn't recognize her, with her blood red gown and dark bangs covering her face. Her lips were as red as her dress, and her left arm was covered in red tattoos._

 _"Is this really what you want to do?" Her voice was musical, floating through the silence like a knife._

 _"Yes." I didn't say it as much as think it. I blinked, and she was gone. I spun around, looking back to the ledge I was just standing on. There she was, but her dress was bleeding._

 _She wasn't bleeding, but the color from the fabric was dripping off the skirts like running dye. Her hair began to do the same, until she was completely pale. She turned to me and I held back a scream. The only color left on her entire person was the blood red tears streaming down her face._

 _"It's okay. I shouldn't be alive anyway." She took a step off, and I lunged to try to save her, but I was too late. Her white skirts billowed behind her as she hit the pavement._

* * *

And just as her body hit the ground, I woke up with a bloodcurdling scream. Gasping, I look around, seeing Carlos wide awake and standing by my side. The clock by on my bedside table read 4 AM.

"Was it about that night again?" He knew. They all knew. They were the reason I was still alive at all.

"Kind of. The beginning was. But instead of you guys finding me, it was a girl dressed in red. She asked if I really wanted to do it, and suddenly she was on the ledge instead of me. All the red in her dress started dripping and she fell." I didn't realize how badly I was shaking until Carlos placed his hand on my own.

"Are you… having those thoughts again?" We've all those thoughts, at one point or another. We are each other's rock. I shake my head, my hair brushed my shoulders.

"No, but I'm scared for someone else." His eyes grew wide and he ran his fingers through his due toned hair. And then I felt it. A tugging in the pit of my stomach. I threw the blanket off my legs and began lacing my shoes back on.

"Where are you going?"

"I have a really bad feeling." Carlos took a step back and let me go past him.

"Don't tell Mal and Evie. They don't need to worry about the dream."

"Wait! I read something else about the Queen of Hearts." I looked up at him, not sure if I had time to listen to it.

"Make it quick Carlos." He nodded and pulled out his laptop.

"The White Queen has several heirs at one time, but never truly has a blood heir. The White court, at age sixteen, develops a while tattoo on some part of their body. This was a sign of nobility and respect. The Red Queen can only have one heir, and only of her own blood. At age sixteen, the Red heir receives a red tattoo, marking her the true heir.

When the Red Court was in power, members of the White Court would color in their own markings to try to avoid the White Purge. When the powers changed and the White Queen gained control, the Red Court tried to change their markings to red, to avoid the same fate.

The last known Heir to the Red Throne was executed in the Queen's womb before birth." My head pounded with this new information.

"What does this mean?"

"I'm afraid to find out." I opened the door and took a deep breath. I hope I made it in time.

I walked all around the dorms, and my feet brought me out to the commons. The leaves on the trees and the front of the hedge maze caught on the moonlight in an eerie way. The urgency in my stomach grew stronger as I walked towards the maze. I knew I would get lost if I tried going through the main entrance, so I fumbled in the dark to find the door.

By the time my hand found the handle, I honestly thought I was going to throw up. I yanked it open, not caring if I ripped apart the plants covering it. The tunnel was pitch black, but I kept running, my instincts reminding me it was a straight shot to the center.

The door opened on the other side, and a haunting melody drifted over the leaves. It was scarily familiar, but I couldn't place from where. I took the right turn that lead me to the center of the maze, and the sight that greeted me will no doubt haunt me for the rest of my life.

Renee was standing in front of the statues, her white dress from earlier stained with red. She was singing, her voice only partially muffled from the tears streaming down her flushed face. She was staring up at the white statue, its face bathed in white light.

 _You were my mother,_

 _But I was not your daughter._

 _So many lies_

 _Cloaked my life._

 _You lied to me,_

 _I'm not the person I thought I was…_

She walked around to the pink statue, sneering.

 _Who are you?  
Who am I?_

 _Who was I supposed to be?_

 _Here I am, raised by a stranger,_

 _Birthed by a stranger._

 _Myself, a stranger._

She held her hand up, her palm covered in a red liquid. She placed it on the outstretched palm of the pink statue, leaving a red smear on the colored stone. She walked back to the other statue, placing her hand on the outstretched palm yet again.

 _And now, I'm done._

 _You've broke me,_

 _Mother._

 _Whatever your name really is._

 _My real mother,_

 _Executed by the hands of her people._

Her hand slipped off the statue's as she fell to her knees.

 _Her daughter, her only heir,_

 _Executed by her own hand._

A glimpse of silver in her hand came down on her wrist as I ran into the clearing. We made eye contact, and all sound stopped. My ears were filled with a painful ringing as I tried to run to her. My movements were slow, my mind blank. I collapsed next to her and grabbed her hand. I ripped the small silver razor form her hand and threw it into the bushes.

I took my shirt off and ripped it into stripes, trying to stem the bleeding from her arm. As I fumbled with the slick cloth, her good hand came to rest on my wrist.

"Don't bother Jay. It won't work. It never does." Even as she says this, I can feel the slices under my fingers close up. Shakily, I stood and rinsed the cloth in the pool by the statues, watching the blood from the woman's hand drip into the tinted water. Rushing back, I tried to clean of the blood covering her arm. As more as the red disappeared, the more the design underneath became clear.

Her whole arm was covered with an intricate crimson tattoo, roses and thorny vines twisting and braiding themselves over her skin. The underside of her wrist was covered in thin, white scars, barely noticeable if you weren't looking for them.

"Renee…" She pulled her arm away and tried to stand, only to fall back into my lap looking like she was going to pass out.

"Just leave me…" I didn't even bother responding before I scooped her up and walked to the secret door. It took less than ten minutes to walk back to my dorm, but it felt like a minute and a lifetime. I kicked the door open and saw the light on, Carlos sitting at the table typing away at his laptop. The clock by the bed read 6:28 AM.

"Get Mal and Evie. Now." The tone in my voice left no room for arguments. I place Renee on my bed, not caring if the blood got on the blanket. In an instant, three flustered villains' appeared at the door frame.

"Jay…" I didn't look at them.

"Carlos, get me all the information you can on the Red Queen's Heir."

* * *

 **This is all for now. I have an idea on how to finish this, but if anyone has any suggestions or idea, I'm more than willing to work anything in.**

 **-Starlight**


End file.
